ES4: Oblivion - Defining A Generation

July 22nd, 2013, 02:12

Zero1Gaming has an article in their "Defining a Generation Series" the topic of the article is all about Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion…How do you begin to describe the impact it had on this generation of gaming? I’ll be honest, when I sat down to plan how to tackle the task of doing the grand old beast justice there were a lot of words swirling around in this old head of mine. Words like ‘behemoth’, ‘epic’, ‘astonishing’, ‘vast’, ‘grand’, ‘revolutionary’ and just plain ‘awesome’ came and went as I tried to quantify just what Oblivion meant to me and the industry as a whole. One by one I took those words and turned them over in my mind; examining each one, only to discard each one in turn as not worthy. Not a single one came close to really capturing the game.

And then it came to me…

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was a game-changer.

Now, in this modern world of tired old sporting clich&eacute;s in which pretty much every word or phrase has been saturated into oblivion (if you’ll excuse the pun) this might seem trite and hideously banal.

Yea sure. To me the only thing that was worth your time in that game was getting Umbra sword then getting loco all over the place. Nothing else was fun. Not even killing Vivec.
And now when I think of it, I'm not fair with my spits towards Skyrim since there was a worse TES game out there.

I don't think there was anything ground breaking about this game. If anything I limited you in your own thought process. I never finished and just like Skyrim it sits on my computer never to be played again.

Now if you are talking the Witcher it broke though everything I though a RPG could be.

Oblivion was released in 2006 and 7 years passed. More likely writer has been introduced to RPG genre with Oblivion. So naturally he thinks genre has started with this game. I don't think he heard the names Ultima, Wizardry, Might&Magic, even Baldur's Gate or Morrowind names before.

-- "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Originally Posted by JDR13
*Edit* @Joxer - Vivec was in Morrowind not Oblivion.

Yep. Umbra too. Joxer is definitely thinking of Morrowind.

And therein lies the problem of this article: Morrowind's list of features is identical to that of Oblivion. The only thing it's missing is the radiant AI, which was hardly revolutionary given how well the schedules in Gothic 1-2 worked.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Yep. Umbra too. Joxer is definitely thinking of Morrowind.

And therein lies the problem of this article: Morrowind's list of features is identical to that of Oblivion. The only thing it's missing is the radiant AI, which was hardly revolutionary given how well the schedules in Gothic 1-2 worked.

Umbra was in Oblivion too.

Oh that Radiant AI hype. I saw that youtube video on RAI and that instantly made it my most-wanted "feature". I followed NPCs around in the game looking for signs of that same "radiance". They later said they had to "tone down" the features because of unexpected behavior but when I learned the mod tools to make my own, never-released (tankfully too as it was very dirty and buggy albeit functional and way better than vanilla's if i do say so myself), NPC behavior mod, I found out that that was just one big lie out to add to Bethesda's looong list. Shame on me for buying into the marketing and a lesson well learned.

Some people consider combat a rather essential component of largely combat driven games - and in that way, Oblivion was miles ahead of Morrowind. Don't even get me started on the massive improvement to Stealth and Archery.

Also, about production values and immersion - those aspects are a very big deal to the mainstream audience.

That's part of why Oblivion was such a massive hit.

Morrowind was slow and clunky on the original Xbox - even if it was a big hit.

There's no doubt Oblivion was a bigger deal - and Skyrim just takes it to the next level.

DArtagnan

What the hell I wrote last night, sorry guys, I was not in a good shape. Obviously.
Happens when you decide not to buy Skyrim overexpensive DLC, not to buy legendary edition since you already have the game and instead you toss the cash into some beer. More than some. And then after that beer you go to comment a game from the same dev team.

DArtagnan

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
Oblivion was released in 2006 and 7 years passed. More likely writer has been introduced to RPG genre with Oblivion. So naturally he thinks genre has started with this game. I don't think he heard the names Ultima, Wizardry, Might&Magic, even Baldur's Gate or Morrowind names before.

And this is the "New Generation".

My worst fears is that people got introduced to the RPG genre by Blizzard -> and thus naturally believe that fast-paced hack & slay Action RPGs = RPG in general, or, even worse, "RPG as it should be".

-- “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Some people consider combat a rather essential component of largely combat driven games - and in that way, Oblivion was miles ahead of Morrowind. Don't even get me started on the massive improvement to Stealth and Archery.

I agree, but it was more of a natural evolution compared to Morrowind than anything else. It was certainly not ground breaking in any way.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Also, about production values and immersion - those aspects are a very big deal to the mainstream audience.

That's part of why Oblivion was such a massive hit.

Aye, and while it was fairly impressive for an RPG, it was all pretty standard among more actiony games. GTA did everything Oblivion did except skill increases and a fantasy setting.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
My worst fear is that people got introduced to the RPG genre by Blizzard

Some irrational people's worst fear is nuclear war, or the spread of deadly viruses, or natural catastrophes, or getting cancer, or being attacked by deadly snakes or spiders, or being incarcerated for life, or being buried alive… It's good to finally meet a person who has his priorities in order.

The person who wrote that article is definitely a console kid; just read his conclusion:

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was a game-changer in every conceivable way. It changed the face of RPG games in general, the perception of the 360 console as a medium for the genre, the credibility of the console as a whole and helped validate and confirm the arrival of the new console generation.